Questions Left Unanswered
by hauntingCheers
Summary: "S-Something changed .. W-With Bowser; he's b-becoming a new, more vile and h-heartless beast than h-he ever was be-before .." I remember her saying, her entire body rocking with tears that threatened to spill out of her now dull and colorless eyes. The Princess was so .. Broken, maybe even nearly inhumanly unstable. This wasn't like her.


**Disclaimer : **Super Mario Brothers (c) Shigeru Miyamoto

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_**March 14, 2009**_

_There is an exact moment in our lifetime where we all can immediately feel as if something had gone truly, terribly wrong at some point in any specific sort of situation. Some more than others are very minor, while some such as mine are life-altering._

_I knew that my moment in time had come as soon as I laid eyes on that television screen. It was just yesterday, the ninth, when I had first heard of another recent disappearance of the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Then, she was there on the screen, a reporter standing at her side. The first thing I had notice was her trembling. Her poor, once flawless skin was covered in repulsive black and blue bruises. Her eyes were no longer shimmering with determination and perseverance, but with panic and disarray. This had been nothing like our Princess! She wasn't even wearing her crown!-_

_This was the point in which I had noticed her crown laying in the palms of her shaking gloved hands, her fingers curling around the cracked and dull surface. The bright sapphire jewel that had once been proudly nested in the center was now gone, most likely never to be seen again._

_"S-Something changed .. W-With Bowser; he's b-becoming a new, more vile and h-heartless beast than h-he ever was be-before .." I remember her saying, her entire body rocking with tears that threatened to spill out of her now dull and colorless eyes. The Princess was so .. Broken, maybe even nearly inhumanly unstable. This wasn't like her._

_Then I noticed one thing about her that I now wish I had never seen._

_Blood. She was covered in dry blood. Her hair was an absolute mess, blood matting her scalp in various patches. The front of her bodice, near her lower torso, was ripped open, a bright red gash marked across her skin. Blood covered the entire front of her skirt. The one thing that had disturbed me most were the claw marks around her neck._

_What had become of the Koopa King of the Darkland Kingdom?_

_**March 19, 2009**_

_I am still fairly uneasy about the recent disturbance through Toad Town of the return of Princess Peach. Rumors continue to flow through the kingdom as I write this. So far, I had heard of Luigi's whereabouts being in a high-developed emergency hospital in Mushroom City with third-degree burns, far worse than any Bowser had managed to put on somebody. Nobody had even heard of where Mario had disappeared off to. As far as I could possibly ever know, he could be dead._

_Residents had also been worried about various flashes in the night sky. None had been the typical lightning strikes far off in the distance nearer to the Darkland regions, but flashes of an eerie yellow. Hopefully, this is all just indeed a rumor._

_I mean, it has to be impossible for those strikes! Last I had heard-_

Toadianna gasped in sudden surprise as the book was swiftly pulled out of her lap, the ink pen in her small hands drawing a long gash across the page. She groaned, looking up into the mischievous eyes of another Toad Town resident much like herself, "Jesus, Toadi. It looks like you're murdering that thing with your pen! I mean, seriously! The ink is like, a deep red, even! How ironic!" Toadianna rolled her eyes in reply, reaching out for her precious book. "Goodness, Jubilee," she laughed, their eyes meeting, "I don't know how many times I have asked you to stop calling me that sliiiightly irritating nickname. Now, could you .." Jubilee was already flipping through the pages in her book. Toadianna instantly bit her lip; a habit she had picked up on from her childhood when friends had stolen her diary and such.

Jubilee snickered, carelessly tossing the slender black book, "Shit, dude. You had a crush on that creepy Nastasia chick?"

Toadianna's face turned to multiple deep shades of red, "I had never once said that! I _admire_ her, Jubilee. There's a difference."

"Pft. A very _distinct _one."

Toadianna groaned, slapping the palm of her hand to her forehead. "Oh, Grambi," she whined, "now there's a massive streak across the most recent page." This had earned another snicker from Jubilee. "Sucks for youuu!" She playfully sang, turning back to her current work; a long flowing wedding gown in pure silk white.

Toadianna sighed, watching the girl begin to fasten false black and red roses along the sleeveless collar. As often as Jubilee was careless of her appearance, she had actually been of a sort of fairness. She often wore her bright orange hair in a fishtail braid, reaching down to her lower back. Her mushroom hat was a snow white, adored with the large classic dots in a slightly darker hue of cyan. She often wore baggy clothing; nothing of any tighter fabric or denim. She often had a mischievous and adventurous glint in her sky blue eyes, her small silver bar pierced through one of her eyebrows gleaming in the light.

In contrast to Jubilee, Toadianna had often made sure of herself to keep herself in top shape no matter what the occasion. Her light blond hair was often tied back into her mushroom hat-dark brown with beige spots, but her perfectly symmetrically bangs often fell just above her chocolate brown eyes. She had always been set on wearing more formal, business-type clothing, such as collared button-up shirts and v-neck jackets. Never had she ever worn pants since she had begun writing; it had always been pencil skirts with small slits up the sides a fairly short distance.

While Jubilee and Toadianna were exact opposites to one another, they had remained the closest of friends since they had first met in the tenth grade. Often times, Jubilee's "habits" of carelessly throwing out curses and disregarding other people's personal business had irritated Toadianna to a very high extent, but she had eventually grown to simply deal with such behavior.

It was quite an odd story as to how Jubilee managed to own a small shop in Toad Town that custom-made formal wear in which she had named "La Bellezza è la Bestia"; Toadianna had never found the answer to such a rare question. She hadn't even been told what the name of the store had translated to.

Some questions are just meant to be left unanswered.

Toadianna let a quick sigh pass her lips, briefly glancing at the dark clouds looming overhead the small town, "Perhaps I shall return back home .. It appears that a storm is going to pass .." Toadianna spoke, standing up to leave. In reply, Jubilee frowned, "Nahh man. Don't worry about it! Stay here, I've got extra space!"

Toadianna briefly nodded, looking around her friend's small home; there was the main room with the kitchen off to the side, and two hallways leading off into two bedrooms, one cramped half-bathroom, a laundry room, and a small-sized office.

As much as Toadianna had wanted to stay at her own room through the coming storm, she couldn't help but to find herself nodding in agreement, "Alright. I'll keep you a bit of company."

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Translation(s) Book :

1. La Bellezza è la Bestia / Beauty is the Beast ; Italian


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